OpenOffice.org BASIC Guide - OpenOffice.org wiki

Files and Directories
Note – VBA : The options provided in VBA for searching through directories specifically for files with the
concealed, system file, archived, and volume name properties does not exist in OpenOffice.org Basic
because the corresponding file system functions are not available on all operating systems.
Note – VBA : The path specifications listed in Dir may use the * and ? place holders in both VBA and
OpenOffice.org Basic. In OpenOffice.org Basic, the * place holder may however only be the last character of a
file name and/or file extension, which is not the case in VBA.
Creating and Deleting Directories
OpenOffice.org Basic provides the MkDir function for creating directories.
MkDir ("C:\SubDir1")
This function creates directories and sub-directories. All directories needed within a hierarchy are also created, if
required. For example, if only the C:\SubDir1 directory exists, then a call
MkDir ("C:\SubDir1\SubDir2\SubDir3\")
creates both the C:\SubDir1\SubDir2 directory and the C:\SubDir1\SubDir2\SubDir3 directory.
The RmDir function deletes directories.
RmDir ("C:\SubDir1\SubDir2\SubDir3\")
If the directory contains sub-directories or files, these are also deleted. You should therefore be careful when
using RmDir.
Note – VBA : In VBA, the MkDir and RmDir functions only relate to the current directory. In OpenOffice.org
Basic on the other hand, MkDir and RmDir can be used to create or delete levels of directories.
Note – VBA : In VBA, RmDir produces an error message if a directory contains a file. In OpenOffice.org
Basic, the directory and all its files are deleted. If you use the CompatibilityMode ( true ) function,
OpenOffice.org Basic will behave like VBA.
Copying, Renaming, Deleting and Checking the
Existence of Files
The following call creates a copy of the Source file under the name of Destination:
FileCopy(Source, Destination)
With the help of the following function you can rename the OldName file with NewName. The As keyword syntax,
and the fact that a comma is not used, goes back to the roots of the Basic language.
Name OldName As NewName
The following call deletes the Filename file. If you want to delete directory (including its files) use the RmDir
function.
Kill(Filename)
The FileExists function can be used to check whether a file exists:
If FileExists(Filename) Then
MsgBox "file exists."
End If
44 OpenOffice.org 3.2 BASIC Guide · March 2010